Little Ross

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

This edition is copyright © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2022.

It has taken much time and money to make the six-volumes of Groome's text freely accessible. Please help us continue and develop by making a donation. If only one out of every ten people who view this page gave £5 or $10, the project would be self-sustaining. Sadly less than one in thirty-thousand contribute, so please give what you can.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry

Little Ross, a small island of Borgue parish, Kirkcudbrightshire, at the W side of the mouth of the Dee's estuary, ¼ mile E of the headland which separates the entrance of that estuary from the entrance of Wigtown Bay. Measuring 2½ furlongs by 1, it is crowned by a lighthouse, which rises 123 feet above sea-level, and commands a magnificent view of the waters and screens of the estuary, all northward to Kirkcudbright, whilst seaward it looks across the entire breadth of Wigtown Bay, and along the Solway Firth on to its mergence with the Irish Sea. The lighthouse, built in 1843 at a cost of £8478, shows a flashing light every five seconds, visible at the distance of 18 nautical miles, and guiding the navigation of the Solway; and two towers, standing on a line with the lighthouse in a north-easterly direction, serve to guide a vessel over the bar at the mouth of the Dee into the fair way of the estuary.—Ord. Sur., sh. 5, 1857.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer